An Environment of Surfaces…Reflection One
We live in an environment of surfaces. To understand the human condition in this time that hangs between two centuries…the one past, which is formed and fixed, and the one present which is forming and in flux…you must grasp the nature of the surfaces on which we live.
The great paradox of surfaces is that they are simple, clear, and undeceiving. It is we who make them complex, deep, and filled with hidden meanings.
The great metaphor for the environment of surfaces is the movie screen. Each image we see there is simply what it is and not another thing. You see a car, a man, a mighty storm. How could you be deceived? When you see the car chase, or the gun battle, or the sexual encounter could you possibly be fooled?
What would it mean to be "fooled?" Could you possibly think, "I see a car, but perhaps it is really a rhinoceros." Could the mighty storm "really" be a field of flowers? No.
So here we have the first lesson about the environment of surfaces: Things are, always and only, exactly what they seem to be. And, as with the movie screen, there is nothing behind the images.
Hear ends the first reflection. Here begins angst.
